Mechanical bow string releases for archery are commonplace, and are of a wide variety. Those with a trigger or button release usually do not have a safety to lock the trigger or button. Since the bow is drawn and held on target for only a brief period, a safety should not be necessary. On a bow equipped with a drawlock, however, the bow may be held or carried in full draw for considerable time, creating the possibility of accidentally releasing the string or of accidentally launching an arrow by unintentional contact with the release trigger.
Drawlocks of various types have been used by archers and bow hunters for many years. The drawlock disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,723 (Goff, et al.) co-invented by the present inventor, provides a modern drawlock for the contemporary design of a compound bow equipped with an overdraw arrow rest. That drawlock includes a mechanical bow string release, and the patent specification describes that since the drawlock system permits the bow to be carried in a full draw position, the release should have a trigger safety of some type. The specification suggests the possibility of a cross-bar type safety such as used in the trigger guard of firearms.
Other prior art references disclose types of safety lock devices for archery bow string releases. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,287,851 (Lyons) and 4,672,945 (Carlton) describe bow string releases with safeties similar to the crossbar type suggested in Goff et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,922 (Lalonde) discloses a bow string trigger with a safety lock that includes a bow string trigger lever, a gripper release lever, a bow string gripper and a safety lock lever. In the safe position, the safety lock lever engages a notch in the trigger lever and is biased in that position by a spring.
Upon further contemplation, it appears to the present inventor that the crossbar type safety may not be optimally suited for a bow string release, and that it would be difficult to install a crossbar safety as an add-on to an existing string release that does not already have a safety. Consequently, an objective of this invention is a safety lock for a bow string release which is simpler than the prior art safety locks in construction and operation. Another objective is that the safety be easily added to a common type of string release. Further advantages of the invention may be appreciated by reading the following descriptions.